Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the primary product of fuel combustion. It has been identified as a greenhouse gas that should be reduced in order to mitigate climate change. Since the early 1980s, many flue gas scrubbing units using monoethanolamine (MEA) have been installed and operated in industrial plants to capture CO2 for use in chemical processing and for beverage manufacturing.
Energy consumption is currently high for MEA based CO2 capture plants. It is desirable to reduce energy consumption as well as integrate the CO2 capture plant with the host power plant for better overall heat utilization. Through computer simulation, a number of integration benefits have been identified and they have been incorporated in this patent application.